Heat Haze Refutation
by Yumiiro
Summary: The special academy called 'Hope's Peak Academy', only the best of the best get chosen to go there, and there aren't any entrance exams, the invites come to you. Because it was such a high-class school, I just couldn't decline the invitation. That was the invitation... That changed my high-school life into one of mutual killing and despair. WARNING: OOC, Character Death
1. Prologue - Welcome to Despair Academy!

...Is this really happening?

Here I am, standing in front of such a tall building. I think I remember the name... it was 'Hope's Peak Academy'... or something. Whoever gets into this school is promised to have good luck in the future. No, you don't apply, there aren't even any entrance exams. The invitation come to you. Only the best of the best get into this school, and they all must have an eye ablility.

Mine? Well, it's sort of lame. It's 'Eye Movement'. If I stare at something for a long amount of time with my eye powers on, I have move it, or make it float, or something of the sort. How I got it? I was in an earthquake, and a boulder was about to crash onto me. That's when I met the snake. She gave me the power of 'eye movement', and I moved it across, so it didn't hurt anyone. It took a while to control my powers, but it was worth it.

Other than all this with eye abilities, I'm just a strange girl. I love listening to music, my favourite animal is a cat, I'm not interested in fashion at all, and I spend most of my time at home, on the internet. How could someone like me fit in, at such an amazing place like this? I look up at the building once more. I'm nervous, but I step forward. My long, dark brown hair sways behind me and the headphones around my neck shake. Yup, I'm definately nervous. But it's better to get this over and done with, right? I open the door to this amazing academy, and before I know it, the scenery fades to black.

I wake up in a dark classroom, my image being blurry. I raise my right hand to rub my eye, but I feel an abnormal pain on the area of my left cheek. I reach down to the pocket on my jumper I'm wearing and grab out a mirror and I see... a scar? I don't think it was there before I stepped foot into this academy. How did it get there? Oh well, I don't have time to care about that. I put the mirror back in my pocket, and now being fully awake, I glance around at my surroundings.

There are... metal plates? On the windows? What the hell? That's very... strange. I stand up and go over to them, and try to unscrew one of the bolts, but it won't budge an inch. I don't remember them being here from outside the academy... maybe it's just on this room, a window that I missed... Yes, that must be it. I walk back over to the desk I was sleeping on for some reason, and I saw a very cheap-looking pamphlet. I picked it up and read what was on it.

_"A new semester has started! A revolutionary new world awaits you bastards inside these school walls."_ is was it said. Is this a joke? If it is, it's not very funny. I look up to a clock on one of the walls and look at the time. 8am? I got here at around 7:30, so half an hour has passed. What was I doing in that time? How did I faint? Did I trip over something? Did I faint of excitement or nervousness? Someone probably carried me here, and from what I believe, I'm somewhere inside Hope's Peak Academy. I really should go to the enterance hall now, everyone would be waiting. It's around the time of the opening ceremony.

I run out of the classroom, and into the creepy, purple-lighted hallway. I thought this school was supposed to bring hope and fortune, but it seems like the opposite. Creepy hallways, cheap hand-written pamphlets, what good things could it possibly have? I run down the hallway, and into the entrance hall. And when I entered... I saw 14 other people staring at me.

"Are you also a new student?" A girl with orange-blonde hair, tied in a side-ponytail asks me. Her eyes are almost the same colour, and the back of her hair is black. She looks around the same height as me and is wearing a pink hoodie, with red writing over the chest area, the writing saying "阿吽" on it. Under the hoodie she is wearing a blue shirt, and she is also wearing white shorts, with red sneakers.

"Yes..." I reply. I swear I've seen that girl's face somewhere before, I just forgot where. Aagh, this school is so weird!

"We were all supposed to start school here at Hope's Peak Academy today." another girl with white hair says. She's quite small. Her hair is left out and is slightly wavy, her eyes are a mix between red and pink. She has a pink ribbon on her hair, and her outfit is a cute blue dress, with a white apron. She isn't wearing any shoes... which is strange, due to this is a... school. Who wouldn't wear shoes to school?

"With you here, there's fifteen of us, which should be everyone" a tall boy with black hair says. His eyes are a mix between brown and green, and his outfit is a dark green jumpsuit and dark green sneakers. There's also a yellow clip on the left side of his head, most likely to keep hair out of his eyes.

I look around me, at the other people. They all seem to be like me, and have eye abilities. Hmm, I wonder what they are.

"Hi... I'm Tsukiko Suzuki... This _is _Hope's Peak Aacademy, right?" I ask, and they all reply with a simple nod. "I'm just asking because... when I was about to enter the Academy, my vision faded to black and I woke up in a very strange classroom."

"That happened to you aswell?" another boy says. I look over to where the voice came from, and he had blonde hair, with eyes like... a cat? Just great, my favourite animal. And one of the people here was sort-of like one of them. I hope his ability isn't something like 'Eye Meowing' or something. Becuase that would just be weird. Too weird. He's wearing a dark brown hoodie over a light brown shirt, and his pants are blue combined with a brown belt. He's also wearing black boots.

"Everything here is strange" a girl with black hair tied in two short ponytails says, she also has hazel eyes. She's wearing a school uniform, with a creamy coloured blazer and a white shirt underneath it. The skirt she is wearing is black with pinkish stripes on it, and black knee-length leggings underneath, and her shoes are the regular black ones you'd see at any normal school.

"I don't get what's going on..." The girl with orange-blonde hair says. She looks down to her feet with a confused look on her face. I'm pretty sure nobody does. Unless, there's a person here who set all this up. But it's highly unlikely, so I doubt it.

"Hey, shouldn't we all introduce ourselves? I'm sure we'd all like to know who each other is!" another girl with black hair smiles, but her hair is left out and she is wearing two red hairclips on the left side of her right-parted fringe. Her eyes are grey, and she's wearing a different school uniform to the other girl with black hair, this uniform is a black sailor-like uniform with a white ribbon. The socks she wears reach her knee's, they're black, and her shoes are ordinary brown school shoes. She's also wearing a long, red scarf. Wouldn't that get annoying during the summertime? Especially during the heat it is now... I feel sorry for her having to wear that thing.

"Before we discuss what's going on, it _would _be best to find out everyone's names. We won't be able to make much progress if we don't know what to call each other" a low voice explains. I turn around, and realise it was a girl with long, green hair who said it. I can't really tell, because she's wearing a hoodie, and the hood is over her head. She has black eyes and is wearing a pale purple hoodie, with an iPod button design in the middle of the front. Below that is a pocket, which has a soundwave-like design on it. Underneath the jumper there is a red jacket with a high collar, zipped all the way to the top. She is also wearing green pants with the left side rolled up to her knee, and green sneakers.

"I think she's right" The small girl with white hair replies.

"So... let's introduce ourselves, and then figure out what's going on" the cat-eyed boy said. The others start to chat to each other, but I just stay where I am. I know I should be introducing myself to someone, but I can't help myself but to explore the room. I walk up to what looks like one of those huge safe things. The things that people keep those huge amounts of money in. Was that there when I entered the school? This... is weird. Very weird.

I look up to the right and I see a security camera, with a... gun? The gun is attached to the security camera and is moving along with it... Please... please don't let it fire at me... I'm too young to die like this... I look over at my other side, but not high this time. Just to the wall. There's a small television screen there. I wouldn't be surprised if this school had it's own television station, it _is _approved by the government, after all. Something seems strange about it... It's... too small to be a normal television... Oh well. It's not like that one television screen thing on the wall is going to make a huge impact on my life or anything. I then look forward and go introduce myself to everyone.

After a while of introducing and finding things about everyone's names, we decided to figure out what the problem was. Standing here in the room with me was myself, Takane Enomoto (The girl from before with black hair tied up in two ponytails, wearing a school uniform), Momo Kisaragi (The girl with orange-blonde hair, who is actually an idol. So that's where I heard her name! How could I possibly forget?), Kido Tsubomi (The girl with green hair and a purple iPod hoodie), Kano Shuuya (The cat-eyed boy), and Seto Kousuke (The tall boy with black hair, wearing a dark green jumpsuit).

Somewhere else in the room there was Mary Kozakura (The small, white-haired girl who is apparrently 1/4 medusa), Shintarou Kisaragi (Momo's older brother, has black hair and brown eyes. He wears a black shirt with brown pants, and a red jacket with red striped down the sides. He used to be a NEET), Hibiya Amamiya (A young boy with light brown hair and brown eyes, wears a blue shirt with a white vest which has a hood on it, and he also wears brown shorts and sandals), Haruka Kokonose, and (Takane's friend, he has black hair and grey-ish brown eyes. On the top of his right cheek, below his eye there is a small birthmark. He wears a white shirt with a greenish blazer, and black pants with blue striped which almost cover up his shoes).

On another side of the room, there's Luna Braveston (A girl from England, she has black hair where the fringe is long and tied up into two braids and the back is shoulder-length. She has green eyes and a white headband. She also wears a white top with skinny sleeves, but has a see-though black overshirt with leans on one shoulder and hangs off the other, ending just under her chest. It has stripes on it, consisting of the colours of pink, blue and yellow. She also wears blue demin shorts with a silver chain on the left side, and has a band-aid on her left thigh. Her socks are just above knee-length, with a whiteish colour, and black sneakers with red laces. She also has freckles on her face.), Ayano Tateyama (The girl with black hair and red hairclips, also wearing a red scarf) and Hiyori Asahina (A young girl, around Hibiya's age with black hair, which is tied in two ponytails. She wears a black top with a pink strapped dress and black shorts. Her shoes are brown sandals with pink straps, and she was popular at her old school. All the boys loved her, and Hibiya had a crush on her. They went to the same school).

The last two people were standing next to each other in a different part of the room. They are Mako Shizuka (A tall boy with blonde hair and blue eyes), and Miyuki Lee (A small girl with black hair and dark brown eyes. Her hair is tied in a ponytail and she is wearing a blue hoodie with white shorts, and blue sneakers). We've all walked into the academy, lost conciousness, and woken up again in the dark classroom. Ah, I forgot to mention our eye abilities!

My Eye Ability is 'Eye Movement', which I explained before. Takane's is 'Opening Eyes', which allows her to be immortal. Momo's is 'Eye Captivating', which draw's people's attention to her, no matter who it is. Kido's is 'Eye Concealment', which allows her to be erased from people's sight until she is either touched or unactivates her eye power. Kano's is 'Eye Deceiving', which allows him to be something else in one's eye vision, for example, he may be crying, but people will see him as happily singing a song.

Seto's is 'Eye Stealing' which allows him to steal information from people, but he rarely uses it. Mary's is 'Eye Paralysis', which paralyses someone for a short amount of time if they look into her eyes. Shintarou's ability is unknown. Hibiya's is 'Eye Focusing', which allows him to see objects and details from a bird's eye view. Haruka's is 'Eye Awakening', which gives him the ability to remake his body into one that is 'ideal', although it apparrently puts a large strain on his mind and causes him to lose part of his memory, I don't think he's used it yet.

Luna's is Eye Hypnotisim, which whenever someone looks into her eyes when her eyes are activated, she can hypnotise them and make them do whatever she wants, however they do have memories of the time they were hypnotised. Ayano's, Hiyori's, Mako's, and Miyuki's Eye Abilities are also Unknown.

"So, what's going on?" Momo asks. She looks around at each and every one of us, before turning to the door, then the security camera, and then the television screen. "I don't know if those objects have a clue or not, but we should at least _try _to understand what's going on".

"Maybe they wanted to surprise us?" Mary answers.

"No, I don't think that's the case" Kido replies. She then looks at the door. "I don't remember that being there when I first entered. Did anyone else see it?". Everyone shakes their head in disagree. And then suddenly, we hear a huge sound that sounds like... a school bell? Have classes started already? I just look around, confused, but then I realise that everyone is looking at the small television screen on the wall, so I decide to look there aswell.

"Aaaa- Aaaa- Mike test, mike test! This is an announcement! Is this thing on? They can hear me, right? Ehh... in any case..." a light voice said. The image of it on the television screen was blacked out, so I have no idea who it is, and I don't think anyone else knows either. "Ehh... All new students, we want to start this year's entrance ceremony. Please gather at the gymnasium as soon as possible. And with that, I welcome you all!" the voice said again.

"Should we go?" Seto asks. Everyone, including me, quickly nods and runs off to where the gymnasium should be. We open the door and instead of a gymnasium, we find a trophy room.

"What's this place~?" Kano asks with a smile on his face.

"Like hell any of us know" Kido answers. "There's a door over there, it leads to the gymnasium". Kido then walks over to the door, and opens it. Everything looked like a normal entrance ceremony, but there was something off.

"Where are all the other students?" Haruka asks.

"That's what I was thinking" I reply. "Why would there only be fifteen students in the whole school?". Haruka shrugs, and before anyone could sit down, we hear the light voice from before, the one that came out of the small television screen.

"Oi! Is everyone here? Well then, I think it's time to begin!" it says. Then, something that looked like a stuffed toy sat on the table in the middle of the stage on the gymnasium. It was black on it's left side, and white on it's right side. It's right eye looked normal, but it's left eye was red, and in the shape of a type of bolt. Also, on the left side, it's teeth stretched to somewhere near the middle of it's cheek. After seeing this, everyone's faces look more scared than before. It's like there was a huge crack in the ground, and someone was going to fall to their death into the earth's core.

"A stuffed toy?" Takane asks.

"Hey, I'm not a toy! I'm Monobear! Your school's headmaster!" the stuffed toy explains, and from now, it's name is Monobear. "Nice to meet you all!"

"The toy just talked~" Kano says again. Kido is standing next to him, trying to stay calm, but is shaking and it obviously looks like she's about to faint.

"I-idiot... How can you act so calm in a sitation like this..." Kido whispers and hits Kano on the head. Kano's image of being calm flickers for a second, but goes straight back.

"It must have a speaker installed somewhere." Shintaou claims.

"Didn't you hear me? I'm not a toy, I'm Monobear! Your headmaster!" Monobear shouts to Kano and Shintarou.

"It moved~" Kano says again with a smile on his face. Obviously, he's using his powers to look this calm. Even when Kido hit him on the head, he didn't look so calm, and their powers are disabled when they're touched.

"There's someone moving it by remote control..." Luna says. She doesn't look to calm either, but isn't as scared as the others. Maybe she knew about this? It would be creepy if she did. But nevermind, I doubt it. Just a stupid thought.

"Hey, don't make it sound like I'm some kind of remote controlled children's toy." Monobear says. "Well, we should be moving on. Let's begin the proceedings, shall we?"

"Stand! Bow! Good morning, you bastards!". Nobody does what he says, and just stares at the Monobear with blank faces. What's... going on? "Well then, I'd like to begin the opening ceremony that you'll remember for life! To start, I have a short statement regarding your bastards' school life from this moment on. Eh- You bastards are most likely all geniuses filled with overflowing talent. You bring hope to the world! In order to preserve that hope..." Monobear explains.

_"You will live a communal lifestyle entirely inside the school's wals from now on! I hope everyone respects each other and keeps order!"_ Monobear explains more.

"What?" I shout and step backward, but I'm only greeted by the red chairs what were behind me, and I fell over. Not caring much about the pain, I stand back up and stare at Monobear like if he's an alien that came from Jupiter or Saturn.

"Eh- in addition, regarding the extent of communal lifestyle... It's going to be forever! In other words, you are going to live here your entire lives! That is the school life we are assinging to you bastards!" Monobear explains again. What the hell is wrong with him? Forever? He must be joking... For a joke, it's not very funny.

"Live here forever?" Ayano asks in a shocked voice. Mary who is standing next to me starts crying out of the shock, but Seto tries to calm her down.

"Don't worry, we'll eventually get out of here..." he says. If that's the case, I don't think he knows what the word _forever _means.

"Ah, there's nothing to worry about. We have plenty of budget. You bastards won't lack anything, I promise!" Monobear says. I don't think budget is the problem, but more of... having to live with people that half of us don't even know.

"T...That's not why we're worried..." Momo says with a worried voice, the smile she has on her face on television and in magazines, and even at the introductions, has faded away and won't be coming back anytime soon.

"We don't get what you mean by living here forever. It's just a joke, right?" Hiyori asks.

"I am most certainly not a liar! I have great pride in that! Ah, I should also let you know, you will be completely shut out from the outside world! So, you shouldn't be worried anymore about what's going on in the rotten world out there!" Monobear answers. Everyone's face is even more shocked.

"I want to go home..." Miyuki cries.

"Shut out...?" I ask. And then, I remember something from before. "So, those metal plates on the walls are meant to keep us from escaping?"

"That's right. It doesn't matter how much you shout, no help is coming. Therefore, you should just make the most out of your life inside the school!" Monobear shouts.

"This is a joke... a joke..." Shintarou repeats under his breath.

"I refuse to believe this." Kido exclaims, still shaking like a leaf.

"You keep calling it a joke or a lie. It seems you're still very much doubting me." Monobear says. "But I guess it's just natural. We're living in an age where you can't survive if you trust your neighbors, after all. In any case, I will let you confirm for yourselves whether my words are true or not. When you do that, you'll soon understand that my words are always true!"

"We have other things to do then spend our lives in this school." Hibiya replies.

"Oh? You're a weird bunch, aren't you? After all, didn't you all come to this school on your own decision? Don't go saying you want to go back in the middle of the opening ceremony. That said, to be frank, it's not impossible. There _is _a way to get out of here." Monobear explains.

"T...There is?" Mary asks in delight. Her tears are starting to dry up, and she now has a smile on her face.

"As this school's headmaster, I've made a special rule for anyone who wants to leave this school! It's a rule called 'graduation'!" Monobear explains. "I'm sure you all want to hear, so let me explain in detail. As students of this academy, youre obligated to live your communal lifestyle in an orderly fashion. But in case someone breaks the order, that person can leave the school grounds. That is the rule called 'graduation'!"

"What do you mean, 'breaking order'?" Ayano asks.

"Upupu...That is...

_**The act of killing a person!**_" Monobear shouts.

"K...kill?" Mary asks in a worried voice and starts to cry again.

"Y...You've got to be kidding..." Mako says.

"Beatingstabbingclubbingbeheadingburningsuffocatin gstranglingslaughteringvoodoocursing... The method doesn't matter!" Monobear laughs. "Only a student who kills someone can leave, it's a very simple rule. The most evil of actions leads to the best of outcomes. I hope you all cooperate". As soon as I head Monobear say this, a sharp chill ran down my entire body. I don't want to die... or kill anyone here... I look around, and I see most of the students, including Kano this time, are scared. Well, that's normal to act like in a 'kill or be killed' situation. I've read things like this is manga, movies and novels, even in games, but not once in real life! "Upupu... This heart-thumping feeling of distress... It's just as if salmon suddenly startes assaulting people... Like I said before, you bastards are often called 'The world's hope'. Making such 'hope'-filled kids kill each other- such a 'despair'-filled situation! My heart is all a-thump with excitement!"

"What did you say? Kill each other? What the hell?" Takane shouts.

"Killing each other is killing each other. If you want a dictionary, I have one right here." Monobear replies.

"We know what it means! We want to know why killing each other is neccessary!" Ayano asks.

"T...That's right! Stop fooling around with us, we want to go home!" Mako shouts.

"Joke? You keep using that word, joke. How many times do I have to repeat myself? You really are a bunch of thick-headed people. What's with all this 'let me leave'? I keep and keep and keep telling you... Don't you get it? From now, this school if your new home and your entire world! It's an all-you-can-kill, kill-or-be-killed, killing-killing-killing-all-around world!" Monobear shouts.

"To commemorate your arrival at this school, I'm giving you all a little present! It's a student identification card, isn't that cool? It's an electronic student ID card, and therefore, it's name is... 'The Electrontic Student ID card'!". Everyone stays silent. "The Electronic Student ID card is neccessary for your daily activities. It's very important, so try not to lose it! When you first turn it on, please confirm your own real name is displayed on the screen. It has many uses besides simple identification, though. By the way, this Electronic Student ID card is completely water-proof. Even if you deep it in a vat of water, it won't be destroyed! if you try to crush it, it can easily stand a weight of 10 tons! You will find a full list of the rules in it, so please read carefully. Breaking the school rules is forbidden! Rules are what bind us together as society. Without rules, how can mankind live peacefully? That is why severe punishment is neccessary for offenders! Well then, what that, our school's opening ceremony is complete! Please enjoy our quiet, gruesome school life! See you later!". And then, Monobear dissappeared, leaving us there with blank faces.

"I don't know what's going on..." Ayano says worried.

"L...L...Live here forever? K...kill...?" Kido asks. "What the hell is going on?"

"Killing? There's no way..." Miyuki cries.

"This is all a lie!" Mako shouts. And then I realise.

"It doesn't matter if it's a lie or not. The problem is, what if one of us takes this seriously?" I say, and everyone is silent and start looking around at each other.

That was how our school life began. This place was not an academy of hope, 'Hope's Peak Academy', but instead...

_An Academy of Despair._

**STILL ALIVE: 15 Students**


	2. Chapter 1 - (Ab)Normal Days

After what happened this morning, I'm now lying down on my bed in my room, looking at the ceiling. I refuse to believe what was going on earlier, was real. Or at least, someone taking it seriously. Sure, I want to go home, but that will never, ever make me want to kill someone. And then suddenly, the small television screen in the corner of my room turns on. It seems like there's one in each room here.

"Hello, and I hope you are enjoying your new life at Hope's Peak Academy!" says Monobear, through the television screen. "I need to tell you some things. There is an anti-picking mechanism installed into the room's locks. You all have a bathroom attached to your rooms, but no water comes out at Night Time. Only the girl's bathrooms can lock. Also, all the boys have a tool set in the top drawer of their desks, and all the girls have a sewing machine which comes with a diagram of the human body, so all those needles will come in handy!". The television screen then turns off. I close my eyes and try to think that all of this nonsense is made up, and I pinch myself.

Nothing's working. And out of all the people in the world, I just _had _to be one of them. I knew I should'nt have accepted the invitation to come here. I just knew it. I then take out the Electronic Student ID card out of my pocket. I didn't get any time to look at the rules, altough I'm pretty sure the other's did.

After Monobear left and a few of the others said things, I went straight to the door to explore more of the school. Then I went back to the group and they were just about to eat lunch, and Kido was making it. I doubted her cooking skills at first, but the lunch actually tasted nice. After that, the others went to explore ths school, so I decided I would a second time. We did that for quite a while, and then went back to our rooms, and I'm in this current situation.

I accept that the name on the screen was my own, and then the rules appeared on the screen. They were:

1. The students will live a communal lifestyle with no time limit inside the school walls.  
2. The time between 10pm and 7am is called "Night Time". During Night Time there are places that are forbidden to enter, so please take care.  
3. Sleeping is only permitted in the personal rooms prepared for you in the dormitory area. Anyone intentionally falling asleep elsewhere will be punished.  
4. You may investigate the school as you please. There are no special restrictions on your actions.  
5. No violence is permitted against the school's headmaster, Monobear. Destruction of the surveillance cameras is forbidden.  
6. A "culprit" who kills a fellow student will graduate the school. However, they must not let any other student know they are the culprit.  
7. Additional rules may be added by the school at any time.

I stare at the rules for quite some time, before actually reading them. Once again, this isn't a dream. This is reality. I have to face this.

_**Ding dong, Ding**_**_ dong_****.** I heard a loud noise, once again, coming from the television screen.

"Ehh... This is a school announcement. It is now 10pm. The cafeteria's doors will be locked shortly. You are forbidden to enter it. Well then, good night. I hope you all have pleasant dreams." came the voice out of the television screen. And like always, it's Monobear's voice.

It's 10pm already? Geez, time sure does go fast. I put my Electronic Student ID back in my pocket, and shut my eyes. And then, I slowly fall asleep into the land of dreams.

_-The next day-_

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

I wake up to that noise. it sounds exactly like the one I heard last night, at 10pm. Maybe it's signalling that it's morning? If I remember correctly, Night Time ends at 7am, and this should probably telling us to wake up.

"Good morning, you bastards! It's 7 in the morning! Time to wake up! Let's all strive our best today!" Monobear says through the screen. The screen turns off, and I'm too lazy to actually get out of bed. Instead, I just roll out of bed and land on the floor.

"O... Ouch..." I hear myself say. I pick myself up off the floor, and rub my head. I then stand up, open the door to my room, and walk out to the cafeteria, where we're all supposed to meet each morning.

When I arrive at the cafeteria, I see Miyuki, Hibiya, Mako, Haruka, Takane, Ayano, Hiyori, Mary, Seto, Luna, and Kido sitting down on the seats. The only people that are missing are Momo, Shintarou and Kano, and I hope they arrive soon. I walked up to the table the chairs were surrounding and sat down on one of them.

"I'm sorry I'm late~ I accidentally slept in" a cheerful voice came from near the doorway, and it was none other than Kano. He smiled and walked over to the table, and then sat next to Kido. Not a long while after, Shintarou and Momo walked in, and they also sat down.

"Is this everyone?" Mako asks, and we all look around. Thinking everyone is here, and we are, we all nod.

"Good. Now, let's all try and think of a way to escape" says Momo.

"Didn't Monobear say we couldn't escape?" Miyuki asks.

"We'll never know unless we try~" Kano answers with a smile on his face.

"It's useless. The metal plates on the wall are rock hard, they wouldn't move an inch when I tried turning one" Kido claims. We all go silent.

"W... We still should try... I want to go home..." Mary cries. It seems like she _really _wants to go home now.

"Mary... Don't cry... We'll find a way to escape, I promise!" Seto tells Mary and he pats her head.

"R...Really?" Mary is still crying, but she has a smile on her face now.

"Yeah!" Seto smiles. Mary also looks up to his face and smiles more. Wow, they look so sweet together.

"I...I'll go get breakfast" Mary happily says before she stands up, walks over to the kitchen, and comes back with cereal, a carton of milk and 15 spoons and bowls. We all eat breakfast and after that, we all walk out of the cafeteria and part ways.

I'm bored... maybe I'll go hang out with someone? Not like there's anything else to do. I spend a few minutes thinking on who I should hang out with, and I finally decide on Miyuki. I go to her room and knock on her door.

"Who is it?" Miyuki shouts from inside the room, her voice getting closer and closer to the door.

"It's me, Tsukiko." I reply in a loud voice. "Would you like to hang out with me today?"

"I'm sorry, but I was thinking about hanging out with Kido... She's such a good cook, I'd like to learn from her" Miyuki replies as she slightly opens the door.

"Is it alright if I help aswell?" I ask.

"I'm fine with it, but I'll have to ask Kido" Miyuki says as she opens the door more, and walks out of her room. "Follow me". She then starts walking, until we're outside the Kitchen. She then knocks on the door, opens it and walks inside the room.

"Hello, Miyuki and... Tsukiko?" Kido asks. She's wearing an apron over her usual hoodie and pants, but the hood is down and we can see all of her long, green hair. All the ingredients and utensils needed for a cake are spread out on the bench, near the sink and oven.

"Hello!" Miyuki smiles and waves to Kido. "Is it okay if Tsukiko also helps?"

"Sure" Kido replies. "You'll need an apron, they're over there". Kido points to a box on the floor which is full of aprons, and Miyuki walks over to it, gets 2 aprons, comes back, and gives one to me. We put our aprons on and turn back to Kido. "First, we need to weigh out the ingredients to check we've got enough of each. Tsukiko, do you want to do that?" she asks.

I nod, and I start to gather the ingredients closer to me. Kido tells me how much of each I need, so I put them on the weighing scale and use that to measure them. I then give all the ingredients back to Kido, and she puts the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl, and mixes it around.

"Next, we need to add the eggs. Miyuki can do that" Kido explains. Miyuki then takes two eggs from the egg carton and cracks them into the mixing bowl, however, getting half of the shell inside the bowl.

"I'm sorry!" Miyuki shouts and grabs a spoon to get the egg shell out.

"It's okay, we all make mistakes." Kido tells her, but Miyuki completely ignores this and is so focused on trying to get the egg shells out of the bowl. She eventually got all the egg shells out, but lots of the ingredients came with it. After realising this, Miyuki starts to cry, and I run up next to her.

"Don't worry, the world isn't going to end. We can always make a new cake." I pat Miyuki on the back and take her to the sink to wash the spoon. Kido starts pouring the vanilla essence in the mixture as we do this, and when Miyuki turns around and starts walking back, she accidentally bumps into Kido, causing it to go everywhere, mostly on the floor and on the bench.

"I'm so sorry!" Miyuki cries. "I'll clean it up!". Miyuki runs over to a different corner of the room to get a sponge to clean it up with, comes back with a sponge and a bucket of water, and starts cleaning the vanilla essence off the floor. There's alot of it on the floor, I can't help but feel sorry for her.

"Here, I'll help you clean it up." I say.

"I can clean it up myself..." Miyuki replies. I doubt this, and go over to the same corner she did to get a sponge for myself, and when I come back, I slip on the water that was on the floor, where the vanilla essence used to be.

I hit my head on the floor, and my vision becomes a little blurry. Kido sits down on the ground and waves her hand in front of my face.

"Are you okay?" She asks me. I nod, and my vision returns to normal, I sit up, and I see Miyuki next to me, crying.

"Don't worry". I pat Miyuki on the head and she's still crying. "Like I said before, we can always make a new cake if something goes wrong!". Miyuki's face lightens up a bit after I said those words.

"Okay! I'll try my best not to make any mistakes!" Miyuki says and smiles.

Miyuki, Kido and I spend the rest of our day making a vanilla cake. We had to re-make it 6 times due to either egg shells, incorrect weighing of ingredients, burning, or bad tasting, but we had lots of fun. But just before we left, Kido asked us a question.

"Miyuki, Tsukiko, would you like to come with me to the Public Bath tomorrow night, around when Night Time begins? I was planning for all the girls to meet up there to... relax" Kido asks.

"I'm sorry, but I can't! I have to go to sleep early, or I'll be tired the next morning!" Miyuki cries.

"I can't go aswell, I was thinking about making some new clothes for myself, since all the girls have a sewing machine" I tell her.

"...Okay. It's not surpising though, the only people that accepted were Hiyori and Momo" Kido says. We all then wave goodbye to each other, and walk off in different directions.

I walk back to my room and have a shower, and suddenly while I'm having a shower, the water turns off.

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

"This is a school announcement. It is now 10pm. The cafeteria's doors will be locked shortly. You are forbidden to enter it. Well then, good night. I hope you all have pleasant dreams". I can hear the voice slightly, not as loud as I could when I was in my room. I don't think the bathrooms have one of those television screens in it. I step out of the shower, dry myself with a towel and put my clothes back on. I don't think I have anything else to do, so I just go and sleep.

_-The Next Day-_

**_Ding dong, Dine dong._**

"Good morning, you bastards! It's 7 in the morning! Time to wake up! Let's all strive our best today!". I, once again, wake up hearing this. I'm not so lazy today, so I actally get out of bed, go to the bathroom and brush my hair, and then I walk to the cafeteria, and it seems like I'm the last one here.

"Good morning, Tsukiko". Kido says to me. I wave back, and sit down on an empty seat next to her. The breakfast is already on the table, so I eat some. It's a different brand of cereal then yesterday, but it tastes nice. Actually, it's the best cereal I've ever tasted. Could a despairing school like this actually have such nice food? Is it shipped from somewhere, or a special brand you can only find at schools like this? I _would _ask Monobear, but I think the other students will think weirdly of me if I'm so attracted to a type of cereal. So I just let it slide.

When the students finish breakfast, one by one they leave the cafeteria. I stay in here, and I creep off to the kitchen to find if there's any more of that cereal there. I enter the kitchen and walk over to where the cereal is, but before I can do anything, I hear a playful voice coming from outside the door.

"Ehh~ Tsukiko~? Did you really like what we had for breakfast that much, you came here to find out the name of it~?" they ask. I turn around to the door, and I see Kano, the cat-eyed boy. Seriously, how did he know? How did he know I came here in the first place?

"How did you know I was here?" I ask him.

"I saw you come here~" he replies. Yeah. That helped me alot. Thank you. I'll never, ever forgot how much that helped me.

"How did you know _why _I was here?" I sigh.

"I was correct~?" he asks. Wait, was he only guessing? ...Strange. Very strange. "The cereal is 'Monocereal'. There's alot of boxes of it, I don't think it will run out anytime soon~". So, Monobear made it? I feel much worse after hearing that. Kano smiles, and I walk over to the door.

"Now I know the name of the cereal, my business here is done." I tell him, and walk out the door, and back to the cafeteria. I'm confused. How does a bear, even one like Monobear, make cereal? Nevermind.

Now, who should I hang out with today? I think of all the people that I haven't talked to much, and I remember Luna. She's from England, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I could ask her some things about her home country? I look up at the clock first. It's only 9am, I have enough time to hang out with Luna for a few hours, and then going to make some clothes. And if I have enough time, I'll be able to go to the Public Bath with Hiyori and Momo! That sounds like a great plan!

I walk out of the cafeteria, up the hallway, and addicentally bump into someone.

"Oh, hello!" The peron, being Luna, says to me. "How are you?"

"I'm good" I reply. "Would you like to hang out with me today?"

"Are you sure it's not a bother to you? People alway say I bother them when I hang out with them" Luna asks me. Surely, her Japanese isn't quite the best and she still has an English accent. I wouldn't be surpised if she only moved to Japan to attend this school.

"Sure, it's not a bother" I say to her. "Where would you like to go?"

"Is my room fine? I don't think there's much places to hang out as of now..." Luna says as she looks up in the air. "From what I remember, there was a gate in front of the stairs leading up to the second floor..."

"Sure, your room is fine. Where is it?" I ask.

"I'll show you." Luna answers as she beings to walk over to the dormitory area, and stops in front of a room which says 'ルナ' on it. She opens the door, and we both walk in.

"What did you want to do?" She asks.

"I just wanted to ask about what England was like." I tell her.

"It's a very nice place there! If you can go overseas when we're able to leave this place, you should visit there!" Luna explains. "I only came to Japan because of my mother's job. We were about to move back to England, but I was invited to this school, and she really wanted me to join. I was allowed to stay here, in Japan."

"That's very... interesting. Is the weather cold over there?"

"To me it's normal, but it might be a little bit cold to people from other countries"

Luna and I spend the next few hours chatting, and telling each other things about ourseleves.

"Ah, I need to go! I was going to make clothes!" I shout out. Luna turns her head to the side, and looks at a clock that is in her room.

"It's 3pm already... Did we really spend that long chatting?" She asks, but before I could say anything to answer...

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

"Hello, you bastards! All of you must gather at the gymnasium now!" shouts Monobear from the television screen.

"I guess we have no choice but to go." Luna says. "You can answe my question later". Luna and I both exit the room, and Luna locks the room door after I exit. We both walk over to the gymnasium, and see Monobear sitting on the stage. Most of the others are gathered around him on the floor. It reminds me of the so-called 'entrance ceremony'. Just thinking about that makes me nervous. Anyway, we weren't the last people to arrive, so we waited for the last few people to come.

"Everybody's here! So... the important news is...

...I** have set up a motive for you to murder each other!**" Monobear shouts.

"A... motive?" Mako asks.

"Yes, a motive! Don't make me repeat it!' Monobear replies.

"I don't want to hear it!" shouts Hiyori

"Well, you have to. Guess what the motive is?

**Your memories!**" Monobear shouts once more

"Memories~? I don't remember not forgetting anything~" Kano grins.

"Of course you don't" Kido says and hits Kano on the head.

"Oww~ Kidooo~ That hurt~" Kano grins once again.

"I don't care." Kido tells him.

"What do you mean by our memories? I can remember what happened before I entered Hope's Peak Aacademy, and everything after..." Ayano says.

"She's right." Shintarou adds in.

"What about your school life?" Monobear says. "You know nothing about that?"

"Of course we don't... We never _actually _went to school here, did we?" Hibiya asks.

"N...None of us do..." says Mary.

"Well, that's what memories were taken away from you! The two years you were real students at Hope's Peak Academy!" Monobear shouts in delight.

"T...Two years?" Miyuki cries.

"Two years~?" Kano asks.

"...Two years" Takane and Haruka both say at the same time.

"Hold on... this is just crazy. How did you remove our memories?" I ask Monobear.

"Would it be more convincing if I said it was by Hypnotism? Or if I said I messed with your brains by taking things out of them? It's a secret!" Monobear shouts. "Any student that is to graduate will receieve their memories back from their school life at Hope's Peak Academy!" were the last words he said before dissappearing.

...Two years. It felt like it was only a few minutes from the time I entered the school, to the time I woke up in the classroom. But no, it was two years. 104 weeks. 730 days. 17520 hours. 1051200 minutes. 63072000 seconds. All of that, none of us except Monobear remember anything.

"My family might have already moved back to England!" Luna says in a worried voice.

"...The pets at my apartment might have died" Kido says under her breath.

"Hasn't anyone from the outside world notice we've all been missing for two years?" Seto asks. All of us blankly stare, and say nothing. I'm just too shocked. If we were all students at Hope's Peak Academy, why aren't we normal students there now? I'm sure one, or more people here are planning murder right now. I'm not. I would never kill someone, even if it was to find out my memories.

After a few minutes of silence, we all walk back to our rooms. I remembered I was going to sew some clothes, so I get some fabric from one of the lower draws of the desk, and the sewing machine. I begin making some clothes. I also make some for the other students here.

Around six hours later, I'm still making clothes, and I'm starting to feel sleepy. Just... one... more...

I couldn't help it. My eyes just shut on their own, and I fell asleep on the table.

_-The Next Day-_

Today, I wake up before the Monobear announcement. I put the finished clothes on a pile next to the desk, the sewing machine where it belongs and the fabric in the drawer underneath it. I would take a shower now, but seeing it's still Night Time, I can't.

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

"Good morning, you bastards! It's 7 in the morning! Time to wake up! Let's all strive our best today!" the announcement says. Now that it's morning and the water seems to be running, I'll go take a shower.

When I finish my shower, I walk to the cafeteria, and I see Kido sitting on a chair, as pale as a sheet.

"So that's what happened?" Kano asks her, not so cheerfully this time.

"...Yes" Kido replies. "I saw it with my own eyes..."

"H...Hiyori..." cries Hibiya.

Hiyori? I look around at everyone gathered around the table, and there's everybody there... except Hiyori! Is she late?

"What happened to Hiyori?" I ask.

"H...Hiyori?" Mary asks "D...Didn't you just hear?"

"No... I just got here..." I say.

"I...I'm sorry!" Mary cries.

"It's okay. So, what happened to Hiyori? She's not here." I ask again.

"Hiyori..." cries Hibiya.

"_...She was killed_" he cries again.

"Killed?" I shout a little bit too loud. I can't believe someone actually killed another person... just to get their memories back? "Do we know where she was killed?"

"I...I'll show you..." Kido says as she stands up, and walks out of the room, and down the hallway. All of us follow her.

We enter the Public bath, and in front of our eyes...

_...Is Hiyori Asahina's dead body._

**STILL ALIVE: 14 Students**


	3. Chapter 1 - Abnormal Days

The remaining fourteen students, including me, were standing around the corpse, in shock. Were memories really that important to someone? So important... they could kill?

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

"A dead body has been discovered! Following a brief period of investigation, we will commence our school trial!" Monobear says, from the television screen. After those sentences, the screen goes black, and we all stare around at each other in horror.

Miyuki, Hibiya and Kido were crying. Mary was shaking. Everybody else was shocked. I was confused.

Would someone really want their memories back _that _much? If we can't remember something, we can't remember something. It's more impossible then possible to remember the forgotten.

I look around at the people near me. Did one of these people kill Hiyori? Or, was it Monobear? I wouldn't be surprised if it was. He was having lots of fun explaining about the act of killing a person, he also laughed and smiled when all of us were clearly scared out of our minds.

Wait... school trial? That was never mentioned in the Enterance Ceremony, or in the Electronic Student ID Handbook. So, what is it? By trial, does it mean that debating thing that is sometimes on television, or held in court? Or is it just a coincidence, nothing to do with court.

"Hey, Monobear. What do you mean by 'School Trial'?" Mako shouts out. Great, he bet me to it. Monobear then appears near the doorway, a few seconds after Mako finished saying what he said.

"Let me explain, you bastards!" Monobear shouts."A school trial is much, like the ones you see in court. All you bastards have to debate on who the murderer is, using evidence you find. If you guess the murderer correctly when it's voting time, the murderer gets punished and all the 'innocents' are kept alive. If you guess the murder incorrectly, all the 'inoocents' are punished and the murderer is free to leave the school."

"What do you mean by 'punishment'?" Haruka asks.

"Execution, of course!" Monobear replies.

"E...Executed?" Kano shouts in a shocked voice.

"Yes, Executed. If you don't know what it means, I have a dictionary right here that you're free to use."

"We know what i...it means..." Kido says. Monobear then disappears, without saying another word.

"...I think we should investigate. We don't want to get executed for not guessing the correct culprit, do we now?" Luna asks. Everyone nods, and heads in different directions to find clues.

After a minute of investigationg nothing, Monobear appears again.

"I forgot to give you the Monobear file!" Monobear says before giving each of us a touch-screen device, and dissappearing again.

I touch the screen, and it immediently lights up. On it, is a colourless picture of Hiyori and the word 'DEAD' written over her in blood. Next to that on the right side, is information on her. Her height, her age, her gender, and her weight. I flick the screen upwards, and there's information, and a picture of Hiyori's death. The picture, is of Hiyori lying next to the bath drenched in water. Below that is a white outline of her chest and above, with a blood mark near her mouth and also, another one on her head. Next to that, is a piece of text.

_'The victim is Hiyori Asahina. The time of death was around 9:40 at night. The body was found inside the Public Bath, on the First Floor. The cause of death was drowning. There is a single wound on the victim's head, but no other wounds nor any traces of drugs in the victim's body.' _is what the text said.

Now that we have more information about how and when she died, I'll continue investigating. I'll begin with the corpse, like how all the professional detectives do it in those TV shows.

I walk over to Hiyori's corpse, and see Momo sitting down next to Hiyori, on her knees. Momo picks up Hiyori's hand and checks for a pulse on the wrist.

"...She's dead." Momo cries. After she says that line, I walk over beside her.

"Hello, Momo." I say.

"Oh, Hello." she replies.

"I couldn't believe someone would actually kill just to regain their memories." I state. Momo replies with a small nod, and puts Hiyori's hand back on the ground.

"Were you also invited by Kido to the public bath?" Momo asks me.

"Yeah, why? She said she _was _inviting all the girls. I had to decline, I was busy making clothes and whatnot. I thought that if I finished early, I'd come, but I fell asleep. How clumsy of me..." I explain.

"So it was only Hiyori that accepted, other than me?" Momo asks.

"Yeah, I think so. I think Miyuki and I were the last two people asked, and she said only you two were coming." I reply

"...If only I would'eve come." Momo whispers.

"...You didn't go?" I ask.

"At around 6pm last night, I found a piece of paper slipped underneath my door. I would'eve just thrown it out, but it said 'For Momo' on the upside, so I couldn't leave it alone. I picked it up, and it said that Kido cancelled the meeting, so I didn't bother coming. Here, I can show you." Momo explains, and takes the letter out of her pocket.

It says 'For Momo' on the top. Then, Momo unfolded it and it said 'I'm sorry, but I have to cancel the meeting, due to reasons.'

"And from the looks of it, I assume Hiyori didn't get a letter like yours?" I add in. Momo shakes her head.

"This was probably the culprit's doing. I fell right into their trap." Momo sighs. "Hiyori would'eve arrived early, because Kido asked 'around when Night Time begins', and the murder was at 9:40, which is 20 minutes before Kido requested the meeting to start."

I nod in agreement, and start investigating Hiyori's body, like I was supposed to do. I touch her head, and there's a wound which is no longer bleeding. There's some blood stuck to some strands of hair very close to the wound, but not that much. From what it looks like, the culprit tried to make it seem like she only died by drowning.

I lift Hiyori's head off the ground, and there is a faint line of smeared blood on the floor. It's _very, very_ faint, but still bold enough to notice it. I touch it with my finger, and of course, it's dry.

It's still bothering me though. _Why would someone wipe away all the blood from a murder? How strange..._

I put Hiyori's head back on the ground. I don't think I have anything else to investigate on her body, since the head wound was the only wound there. I think i'll go investigate the bath now.

Hiyori died by drowning, and the bath is the only place which has water deep enough for someone to drown in. I sit down on the egde of the bath, and put my feet in, not caring if my body becomes drenched. I then step fully into the bath, and start investigating. All I see is another faint red mark on the edge of the pool, close to where I was just sitting.

Assuming it was blood that came from her head wound, I step out of the public bath and go searching for more clues.

I go to the cupboard where the towels are stored, and the first thing I see is a towel covered with blood. I guess it was used for cleaning up all of the blood. I close the cupboard, and walk up to Kido.

"Hey, Kido?" I ask her.

"What is it?" She replies. She's stopped crying, and from what I assume, she feels much better.

"Did you send Momo a letter saying that the meeting was cancelled?" I ask.

"What? No!" She replies.

"It must have been the culprit's doing, then" I state. "Who knows about the meeting?"

"Only all the girls I asked, which is all of them. It would'eve been a problem if any of the boys knew about our meeting, so I made sure to tell everyone to keep it a secret from them." Kido explains.

I take this all into consideration, and nod. When I come to think of it, wasn't Kido crying about Hiyori dying before we found her body? I think I'll ask her about that.

"Kido, how did you find Hiyori's corpse before we all found it together?" I ask.

"Well..." Kido sighs. "I assume Hiyori came quite a bit early to the meeting. I came just before the meeting time, and when I entered the Public Bath, I saw Hiyori floating in the bath. I rushed over to her, and checked for a pulse, but there was none. I took her out of the bath and tried looking for whoever was the culprit in case they were hiding, but there was nobody other than Hiyori and I. I placed her next to the pool, and then the Night Time announcement played. I took a towel from the towel cupboard and wiped the blood off her head, as well as the blood on the side of the pool, before putting the towel back. I then walked back to my room, and slept."

I stay silent. Everything about this is suspicious. _If Kido wasn't the culprit, why would she try to clean the blood from the crime scene? Why would she search for a culprit, even though there obviously wouldn't be one? _From what I know now, the murder happened twenty or so minutes before Kido even entered the room, that gives the culprit plenty of time to escape from the room.

_It was Kido's idea to hold the meeting, and that would'eve given her the perfect chance to kill someone. She claimed that the letter written to Momo wasn't written by her, even though it could'eve. _From what I saw, the handwriting looked exactly like Kido's. Kido even wrote something on the cake that Miyuki, Me and her made, and I swear, the two are identical.

_...It's just too suspicious._

I calmly wave and walk away from Kido, and see Kano.

"Hey Kano, do you know anything about this murder?" I ask.

"Hmmm, well... I _did _see Hiyori walking to the public bath around twenty minutes before Night Time. Other than that... no~" He replies in a cheerful voice. _Seriously? _How can that guy be so cheerful, even when one of his classmates was murdered! And worst of all, _by one of us! _I stare at him in confusion, sigh, and walk off to another person. This time, it being Hibiya.

I walked up to him, and he was still crying. They _were _friends before they enrolled in Hope's Peak Academy, and probably knew each other quite well, for him to have a crush on her. Either that, or he was some kind of fanboy.

"Hey, Hibiya?" I ask.

"W..What is it?" He replies.

"When was the last time you saw Hiyori?" I ask again.

"At the time Monobear gave us the motive. Why?" He answers.

"Oh... Nothing." I say and slowly walk off.

At this rate, Kido is the most suspicious. Although, I _am _having second thoughts. If she was the culprit, why would she admit all that she did so freely? Either that, or Kido wants to be executed. Kano is also a little suspicious, he was the only one who looked more shocked than the rest of us and he saw Hiyori walking to the bath. That, and Momo. She might have been able to fake the note.

Other than those three, I don't think anybody else is suspicious.

I turn around to the right of myself, and saw Mako peering into one of the lockers near me. I walk over to beside him, so I can see what's in there. It was... a camera?

"Hey, Tsukiko, from the looks of it, there's footprints in this photo." Mako says as he points to the screen. And yes, there are footprints. The picture is taken next to the bath, where the water outside it is. In the water, there are small gaps, which are the footprints, in the shape of... boots? There's more next to them, which are in the shape of sandals, much smaller than the boot footprints. I think the sandal footprints are Hiyori's.

"It seems so there are." I say. I hold up my right hand to press the button to go to the next photo, but there is none.

"This is one of those cheap, disposable cameras that can only hold about 20 photos in it. It's quite old and has only been used once, I found it in here with dust all around it, except for a hand mark and fingerprints. Mako then takes the camera and puts it in his pocket, and I have nothing else to do but to walk away and investigate more.

I turn to my left and go to and investigate underneath the lockers. And as soon as I sit down low on the ground, I see a foot go past me. I turn my head to the side and look closely at it, and I see a black shoe, with speck of blood on it.

Wait... _blood? Does this mean they were the killer? _I think as I quickly raise my head to see who the person it, but there was nobody there. _...Was I just imagining things? Oh well..._

I look around for more clues about that, but the closest people to me were Takane, Mako and Kano.

_Just great. This is getting nowhere._

I stand back up, and lift my left hand in front of my mouth as I yawn. _How long have we been investigating for?_ I lift my head up to the wall which has a clock on it, and I see that it's now 9am. We'll_ only probably get 1 and a half hours, due to how strict Monobear is._

_I woke up just before 7am... I heard the morning announcement, and had a 30-minute shower. I arrived in the cafeteria at 7:30am, and we found the corpse at about 7:40am. So, it's been 1 hour and 20 minutes since we started the investigation. We'll probably only get another ten minutes._

I walk around to try and find some more clues, but I just accidentally bumped into Mary.

"I...I'm sorry!" She cries out before bowing down.

"It's okay, I was the one who bumped into you." I say as Mary lifts her head up. "I have a question for you."

"W...What is it?" She asks.

"Were you the last peron that Kido asked to come to the meeting?" I reply.

"Y...Yes. Kido said that I was... I had to decline because I don't like things like public bathing..." She answers.

"Oh, okay..." I reply. "Thanks."

"Y..You're welcome." Mary says as soon as I walk away.

_**Ding dong, Ding dong.**_

_****_"Ehhh... I am getting bored... We should start the show, don't you think? The school trial... that everyone is waiting for!" Monobear shouts. "Well then, let me announce the gathering place! Please go in the red door in the first floor of the school area. Upupu... I'll see you soon!"

_It's finally starting..._

I walk out of the room, along with the other people near me. We walk near the front of the school, to the red door.

"This is it..." Momo says. She then holds out both of her hands, and slowly opens the door, and then we all walk inside.

"Upupu... Is everyone here? If that's the case... Please enter the elevator you see in front of you. It will carry you bastards directly to the school courtroom. The court... That will decide your bastards' fate. Upupu... I allowed myself to go down there ahead of you. I'm waiting!" Monobear explains.

_We need to make the right decision... Uncover the culprit... Or else..._

I think for a moment, and see that everyone else has entered the elevator before me.

"Are you coming?" Ayano asks.

"Yeah..." I reply as I walk to the elevator and inside it.

_...I'm scared._

The elevator then slowly goes down to it's destination, and when it arrives, the doors open.

_The school trial... Which is going to change our lives._

**STILL ALIVE: 14 Students**


	4. Chapter 1 - School Trial

As I walk into the room, I see a court table thing with sixteen spaces on it. Monobear sits on a big red chair in a different area, and tells us all where we each need to stand. I go to my designated space, and opposite of me, I see a photo frame held up by a pole.

In the photo frame, is a black and white picture of Hiyori's face. Also, there is a red mark of a cross on it.

"Let's start with a simple explanation of our school trial!" Monobear shouts. "The result of the trial is determend by your own votes. If the correct culprit is chosen, they alone will be punished. However... If the wrong person is voted for... Everyone _but _the culprit will be punished! The culprit alone, having managed to fool everyone, will publicly graduate this school!"

"Is the culprit... actually one of us?" Haruka asks.

"How do we know it's not you?" Takane adds in. Monobear ignores both of these statements.

"Hey! Answer us!" Mako shouts. Monobear ignores them once again. Mako sighs, and facepalms himself.

"Excuse me, what are the meaning of those things?" Momo asks, completely changing the subject. She points to the photo frame of Hiyori, which is located on the opposite side of me.

"Isn't it sad leaving your classmates out of action just because they died? Friendship should surmount life and death!" Monobear answers, for once.

"Surmount... life... and death?" Luna repeats.

"Then, what about the empty space~?" Kano playfully asks. "There's only fifteen of us, so why have an extra space that's not going to be used?"

"There isn't any deep meaning to it. This is simply a courtroom with a capacity of up to sixteen people." Monobear explains. "Well then, we should be finished with the preperations now. Let's start, already! I suggest you begin with a summary of the case!"

"_**Go on, let the debates**__**begin!**_"

A... summary of the case? Eh, that sounds reasonable enough to start off with. Anyway, with this school trial, all our lives are on the line. Even the culprits. We need to chose carefully, and correctly.

**DISCUSSION START**

"The victim was Hiyori Asahina" Hibiya starts.

"Of course we know that~" Kano adds in.

"The place of the murder was in the Public Bath." Kido exclaims.

"The cause of death was by drowning." Seto says.

"There was also a wound on the victims head, remember?" Momo asks.

"So, the culprit hit Hiyori on the head with something which caused her to pass out, and then took her into the bath?" Luna asks.

Wait... That doesn't seem right...

"**YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!**" I shout out as loud as I can, and the entire room goes silent.

"What was wrong with what I just said?" Luna asks, once more.

"Luna, I'm not sure if you noticed this, but there was some faint blood on the edge of the bath, which was probably caused from her head wound." I reply.

"Caused... from her head wound? So, you just proved me right?" She asks.

"No, that's not what I meant! I'm sure that Hiyori was pushed _into _the bath and hit her head hard where the blood was, which caused her to pass out, and drown in the bath." I answer.

"If it was faint, how did you know it was blood?" Luna asks.

"I have proof." Kido adds in.

"Huh? What do you mean, you have proof?" Luna asks in a shocked voice.

"A little while after Hiyori died, I discovered her corpse and cleaned all the blood from the crime scene. At the edge of the bath, was where some of the blood was." Kido answers.

"Oh... I'm so sorry!" Luna apologizes as she bows down, and hits her head on the edge of bar-like thing in front of her. When she stands back up, she raises her hand and gently rubs where she was hit.

"Should we discuss more?" Mary asks in a shy voice.

"Of course we will." Seto tells her.

**DISCUSSION START**

"So, Hiyori was pushed into the bath, causing her to hit her head and drown." Mako starts.

"How did her body go from inside the bath, to outside the bath?" Miyuki asks.

"Magic, maybe~?" Kano answers.

"Not a chance." Takane replies.

"I know. When I found Hiyori's corpse for the first time, I moved it to outside of the bath, where it's located now." Kido answers.

"What were you doing in the public bath in the first place?" Mako asks.

"I invited all the girls to meet at the public bath, to relax and forget about the situation we're in for the time being there. I invited them all to meet up just before night time begins, but only Hiyori and Momo accepted. I came a little bit early, but it turns out that Hiyori came earlier than me, and was pushed into the pool." Kido replies.

"How do we know you're not the killer?" Ayano asks.

"That's a good point." Shintarou adds in.

"But, Kido was crying when we found Hiyori's corpse!" Miyuki exclaims.

"She could'eve been faking it." Luna replies as she shrugs her shoulders.

"**I HAVE PROOF!**" Mako shouts.

The room went silent once more.

"You have... proof?" Luna asks.

"Yes. Am I right, Tsukiko?" Mako asks me.

Wait... me? What do _I _know about this? I think I know... I knew... but I forgot!

I have to think...

_Think..._

**PHO - TO - GRAPH**

_I remember now!_

"That's right! It's the photograph, isn't it?" I ask.

"Yes." Mako replies. "I found a disposable camera in one of the lockers at the crime scene. I searched through the photo's, and there was only one of them. The photo was of the water next to the bath, with small gaps in it, of footprints. Some of sandals which were Hiyori's, and the others, were much bigger."

"Were they in the shape of Kido's shoes?" Hibiya asks.

"Kido wears sneakers, am I right?" Momo asks as we all look down to Kido's shoes. Yes, they were sneakers.

"No, from what I remember, they weren't." I reply.

"Then, what shape were they in?" Mary asks.

"I can't remember... But they weren't sneakers." Mako answers.

"Oh, that reminds me, when I was looking underneath the locker area for evidence, someone passed by me and they had a small splat of blood on the side of their shoe." I exclaim.

"They might have just stepped in some blood while they were at the crime scene~?" Kano asks.

"No, because I cleaned up all the blood at the crime scene the night before." Kido answers.

"Then... Who's shoes have some blood on them... Must be the culprit!" Ayano happily shouts out.

Before we all know it, we're looking down at each others shoes.

None of them have blood on them.

"Are you sure you sure blood on someone's shoe?" Momo asks with a sad expression.

"I'm sure!" I shout out.

"The culprit probably noticed, and quickly washed the blood off their shoe." Seto says. We all nod.

"Anyway... Back onto topic..." Hibiya sighs.

**DISCUSSION START**

"Hey, Kido, you said that only Momo and Hiyori accepted the invite, didn't you?" Takane asks.

"Yeah, why is that?" Kido answers.

"That only leaves us... with one possible culprit, if it wasn't you who committed the crime" Haruka says, with a sad tone of voice.

"Who?" Kido asks, once more.

"**Momo**" Haruka replies.

"Wait... Momo?" Hibiya asks, shocked.

"I...It wasn't me!" Momo shouts out. "I wouldn't do such a horrible act, like killing a person!"

"Of course you wouldn't" Shintarou replies, in a sarcastic tone.

"I...I'm telling the truth! How can I be suspicious!" Momo asks loudly.

"You were the only other person who accepted the invite and you're stuttering." Shintarou answers.

"Does stuttering make you suspicious?" Hibiya asks.

"O...Of course it doesn't! I...I'm just nervous, that's a...all!" Momo shouts.

"Nervous, because you're the culprit?" Shintarou asks.

"**YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!**" I shout as loud as my voice can reach. Like before, the room went silent, but was suddenly stopped by a voice speaking.

"She's the only other suspicious person that we know of... How could she not have done it?" Ayano asks, in a nervous voice.

"Momo received a letter from the culprit, saying that the meeting at the public bath was cancelled" I answer to her.

"That's right! I must have not been the culprit!" Momo says as she claps her hands together, before reaching into her pocket and getting out a piece on paper.

On the top of it said 'For Momo'. She then opened it, and showed everybody. The writing on the inside said 'I'm sorry, but I have to cancel the meeting, due to reasons'

"I fell right into the culprit's trap." Momo sighs. "I can't believe that I believed such a fake letter..."

"We're out of who to choose..." Luna sighs.

"Do we know that Momo didn't write that herself?" Miyuki asks, crying.

"My handwriting doesn't look like this!" Momo pouts. "I write alot messier!"

"I can't imagine Momo being able to write neat" Hibiya claims.

"That's insulting!" Momo shouts. Hibiya shrugs, and ignores her.

**DISCUSSION START**

"The culprit could'eve been any of the girls... They were the only people who knew about this meeting" Seto exclaims

"Did any of the boys find out about this?" Ayano asks

"I was never told" Mako states

"Me neither~" Kano says

"I made sure not to tell them. If I did, it would'eve lead to a problem" Kido explains

"So, none of them found out?" Luna asks

"I'm sure of it" Kido says

"**Y...You're wrong!**" Miyuki shouts as such as her small voice can shout

"How am I wrong?" Kido asks

"Well... After me, you, and Tsukiko made the cake... a few seconds after I walked out of the Kitchen I saw Kano" Miyuki says, nervous. Kano stays silent.

"Kido told us about the meeting just before she left the room, am I right?" I ask. Kido nods.

"There's no way that Kano didn't know about this, from what it looks like" Kido says, as her gaze goes straight to Kano, and Kano backs away a little.

"I didn't know about this before you told us~ I didn't see Miyuki, either~" Kano says in a cheerful grin. If he was the culprit... He would be more scared than this.

"But I saw you! Please don't lie!" Miyuki pouts.

"Yeah, please don't lie to Miyuki, and everyone else" Mako tells him.

"Please don't use your powers at a time like this" Kido tells Kano, but Kano just stays how he is.

"I told you, it wasn't me~ I didn't know about this before you told us!" Kano smiles again.

**DISCUSSION START**

"Were there any other girls that went to the public bath?" Haruka asks.

"That wouldn't give us an answer." Hibiya says as she facepalms himself. "Nobody would admit it"

"Oh... Kano... I remember what you told me..." Mary says in her quiet voice. "You said you saw Hiyori walking to the Public Bath 20 minutes before Night Time... "

"That's around the time the murder happened!" Takane shouts.

"Kano is a suspect" Kido exclaims.

"A...Are you kidding? I never said that~" Kano lies.

"**YOU'VE GOT THAT WRONG!**" I shout, and Kano jumps back.

"If I'm right, you told me that aswell. That you say Hiyori walking to the Public Bath around 20 minutes before Night Time." I state.

"Stop lying~ I never said that~" Kano smiles, but his smile is starting to fade, even if it's just a little.

"You said that to two people, and you're still saying it's a lie?" Seto asks.

"How suspicious..." Shintarou adds.

"How do you know that I was walking to the public bath? Maybe I was just walking to the cafeteria, going to get something to eat~?" Kano asks

"The cafeteria is closed during Night Time." Luna says, and Kano's eyes open wide, his face now shocked.

"You knew about the time _and_ place of the meeting, which is why you were walking around in the first place" Ayano says, in a sad voice.

"I also mentioned who accepted the invite when I was telling Miyuki and Tsukiko about the meeting..." Kido says, and Kano opens his mouth to say something, but he doesn't.

_From what it looks like, his mask is completely faded, and he's his true self._

**CLIMAX INFERENCE START**

First, Kido invited all of the girls to the public bath for a meeting. Not really a meeting, though. Just to relax, and forget about the current situation they're in for a period of time.

When Kido was telling Miyuki and I, Kano passed outside of the room and listened in on the conversation. She mentioned that the meeting would be held just before Night Time at the public bath, and that only Hiyori and Momo had accepted. Miyuki and I both declined, which gave the culprit more chance.

Then, when Miyuki was walking out of the kitchen, she bumped into Kano. She quickly apologised and went back to her room, and so did Kano.

Later, the nexy day, Monobear announced a motive for us to all kill each other. It was that we had studied in the real Hope's Peak Academy for the last two years, and we all had guided amnesia. From when we stepped foot into the school and our vision going black, to when we woke up in the strange classroom.

This motivated the culprit, so they set up a fake note that the meeting was cancelled, and delivered it to Momo. Momo then opened it and thought it was from Kido, the person who organised the meeting in the first place. She fell into the culprit's trap and didn't go to the meeting.

However, this letter wasn't delivered to Hiyori, so Hiyori went to the Public bath, and earlier than the plan time, for a reason which we don't know. The culprit saw Hiyori walking to the public bath, and followed her.

When Hiyori got to the public bath, she began to look around, seeing if Kido or Momo had arrived, and this gave the culprit a chance. They pushed Hiyori into the bath. Hiyori hit her head on the hide of the bath, deliviering her unconcious, and drowned. The culprit then left the room and went back to their bedroom.

At when the meeting was supposed to start, Kido, the organiser of the event, enetered the room. She was Hiyori's corpse floating in the bath, and took it out of the bath. She went to get a towel to wipe off all the blood at the crime scene, from her head, and from the line on the side of the bath. She then took a photograph with a cheap, disposable camera and put it in one of the lockers. Kido then went back to her room.

"Kano Shuuya... It could'eve only been you!"

**CLIMAX INFERENCE END**

"There's no other suspicious person" Mary says in a shocked voice

"...We should place our votes now" Mako exclaims.

Suddenly, a tall screen on a stand begins to rise out of the ground, and I wait until mine is fully held up.

"Just remember... If you place the wrong vote, everybody will be executed! Upupupu~" Monobear laughs.

_I'm certain it's Kano..._

_If it's not..._

_We'll all die, right here and now._

I scroll across the touch screen, and I scroll until Kano's name appears. It says 'Kano Shuuya' in big letters. I'm hesitant to touch the 'Vote' button... But I have no choice.

I touch it, after a long 10 seconds. Kano is standing on the opposite side of the room, his face pale.

How useful that mask is...

**TRIAL END**

"What do you know! You hit the jackpot! The culprit who killed Hiyori Asahina..." Monobear explains

"**It was really Kano Shuuya!**"

Kano is speechless. Without able to say anything, everyone stares at him with confused faces.

"Kano... How could you?" Kido asks him.

"It... wasn't my fault... I killed her" Kano says, his face still pale.

"Then who's was it?" Ayano asks.

"Monobear's... He gave me the motive... And the reason..." Kano replies, quickly but slowly.

"He all gave us that motive, didn't he, and none of the others killed, or were probably even planning to kill anybody" Mako begins to explain

"No, but he gave me something that he didn't give you" Kano says

"What?" Hibiya asks in shock.

"When I went back to my room after that meeting..."

"**I suddenly started to remember things**" Kano finished. All of us stand there in shock. Why... Why did this happen? Did Monobear purposely give them back to just Kano? I don't remember anything from Hope's Peak Academy...

"I remember... One person. She was always so kind to me. Her hair was long and pretty, but she didn't like it. She would always complain if anybody complimented her, even to me. But still, she was kind." Kano explains.

"Kano..." Kido begins

"She was in the Hope's Peak Academy uniform... For sure." Kano cuts her off. "And the day I confessed... Before I could receieve my answer"

"**The memories stopped coming**" Kano says. "I was so madly in love with her, I just needed to know. If when I got out of this school... I could meet her again one more time... But that all shattered when I found out that I would be executed if you guessed me correctly... And if you didn't everyone _except _me would be killed"

Suddenly, Kido's eyes widen.

"Kano..." Kido repeats once more.

"**That person was me... wasn't it?**" Kido asks, and Kano is shocked once again. Kano tries to overcome it and closes his eyes, and there is a one minute pause.

"...I remember now." He says.

"The reason why I was so scared... is because I had the strangest feeling that _that_ person was here... And now I remember who it was..."

"**Kido Tsubomi... It was you**" Kano exclaims. We all go silent once more.

"Kano!" Kido shouts out. "I... Remember everything about you now... From High School... I...I'm so sorry I forgot..." she says, as she starts to cry.

"It's not your fault, Monobear removed them" Kano says

"But... Kano... It's all his fault... My answer was a yes... And... And..."

"I don't want to... lose you!" Kido cries. "Kano, I love you! I...I really do!"

Kano's eyes widen and then smiles.

"_Kido... I know now. I've always loved you, ever since we met. Our first day at Hope's Peak Academy... But now..."_

_"I have to say goodbye." _Kano calmly said as she closes his eyes in acceptence, his eyes beginning to tear. Kido was crying as much as any person could. She must be really sad...

"Don't leave... Execute me instead..." Kido cries.

"I have no choice. Kido, I don't want you to be harmed... Never..." Kano says. "Monobear... Begin the punishment."

"I prepared a special punishment for Kano Shuuya, with the Eye Ability 'Eye Deceiving'!" Monobear shouts. "Let's give it our best! It's Punishment Time!" Monobear says as he walks to an exit of the room, and invites us all to follow him, and Kano at the lead, and as soon as we enter the door... Everything goes black.

When the lights turn on again it's still dark, but we can at least see. There's a gate in front of everyone, except Kano. Kido is still crying her eyes out.

**EXECUTION START**

Kano is surrounded by black. No ends. He runs to the right as fast as he can, trying to escape, but a big illusion of _the mask _appears before him, and opens it's mouth, like it's about to eat Kano.

Kano then runs of in the other direction, even faster, but the mask chases him. Kano is running out of breath, so he stops for a moment, just when another big illusion appears in front of him.

He runs between them, to the back. He's running and running... But another one appears... Until they're all surrounding him. They all go close to him so much that we can't see them...

And when they form away...

_Kano is no longer there._

**EXECUTION END**

Kido's eyes widen in shock.

"Kano!" She cries, her eyes as tearful as they can be. "Why Monobear... Why..." She says as she turns around to Monobear, and glares at him. "Why did you do something as awful as that to Kano?" she asks.

"Why wouldn't I? He murdered somebody... And that is the punishment of breaking order. Upupupu~" Monobear laughs, leaving us all with shocked faces.

"Upupupupu... Upupupupupu!".

The laugh echos through our heads.

What we just experienced before us... _was true despair._

**STILL ALIVE: 13 Students**


End file.
